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Blue Dart to invest Rs 25 cr in infrastructure

Blue Dart Express Ltd, an air express courier and logistics company, has earmarked an investment of Rs 25 crore for infrastructure development across the country this year.

As part of its expansion plans, the company has proposed to add 45 more warehousing facilities, to the existing 32, throughout the country and of this, 15 would come up 'in the southern region, Mr P. Gopinath Menon, Senior Vice-President South, told Business Line.

The company is in the process of setting up these facilities with a total capacity of 54,000 sqft in the South and of this one will be in Kerala.

"We have plans to invest in and around Kochi also for additional facilities in 2007 as the city is going to be a key destination centre on par with Bangalore," he said.

The southern region is growing as an important market for the company as it accounts for 35 per cent of its total revenues. It handled 15.5 million shipments and 36.61 million tonnage during January to September this year. Some of the major industry verticals serviced by Blue Dart in this region are raw material, textile yarn, computer, telecommunication, consumer durable etc.

Kochi, he said, has emerged as an important business centre for the southern region and Blue Dart had tapped the potential of the market by offering services to various industry segments such as financial services, electronic, IT software, hotel and tourism, etc.

Earlier, Kochi was only a consumption centre but the outbound activity has picked up tremendously in the last two years making the city an important destination for various industries, he said.

Blue Dart, which has completed 10 years in air express " now holds a market share of 40 per cent. It is the only domestic player that has a dedicated air cargo service with five Boeing 737 and two Boeing 757 freighters operating in seven main cities.